Tanguay, Price power Canadiens past Bruins

Oct 16, 2008 - 4:04 AM
MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Alex Tanguay scored in the second round of
the shootout and Carey Price stopped all three attempts he faced
in the bonus format as the Montreal Canadiens rebounded after
squandering a three-goal lead to record a 4-3 triumph over the
Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

Alexei Kovalev, captain Saku Koivu and Maxim Lapierre tallied in
a span of 3 minutes, 19 seconds in the opening session for
Montreal, which won all eight of its regular-season meetings
with its "Original" Six rival in 2007-08 - outscoring Boston,
38-16, in the process.

"For us to be successful, we have to be playing with the puck,
we have to be skating, and I think we didn't skate as well as we
could have in the last two periods," Tanguay said. "But I guess
we have to win the ugly ones, too, and we'll take that one."

Defenseman Andrei Markov recorded two assists and Price finished
with 31 saves as the Canadiens improved to 56-27-15-1 in home
openers - and 8-1-2 all-time against the Bruins in such
contests.

Marc Savard scored twice and David Krejci also tallied for
Boston, which was eliminated in seven games by the top-seeded
Canadiens in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last season.

After Tanguay wristed a shot that sailed past goaltender Tim
Thomas and just inside the right goalpost, Price made it stand
by thwarting former Canadien Michael Ryder on the final attempt.

"Well, the fans gave me a pretty good boost," Tanguay said.
"With Carey making the first two saves and the fans starting to
get excited a little bit. ... I don't know, (Thomas) is a pretty
good goalie, he moves well laterally, and he went down and I
found a way to put it over his shoulder."

"(Ryder's) a good friend of ours, but on the ice, there's no
friends out there," said Price, who also stopped Phil Kessel and
Patrice Bergeron in the shootout. "You know, he's a pretty good
shooter, he had quite a few shots tonight."

The Bruins tied the contest at 3-3 with 58 seconds left in
regulation thanks to a quirky bounce off the home team's end
boards.

Ryder dumped the puck into the zone and, as Price went to gain
possession, it bounded off the end boards and right to the
waiting stick of Savard, who promptly tapped it into the net for
his NHL-leading fifth goal of the season. St. Louis veteran
Keith Tkachuk has four tallies on the young season.

"I was trying to jump in there, and it took that hop and it was
tough because I had to wait for it to kind of come down," Savard
said. "I was able to bat it right on the line on the ice. It
was a good break."

Kovalev opened the scoring with 4:54 remaining in the first
period.

Just 15 seconds into a power-play opportunity, Kovalev fed Tomas
Plekanec below the end line and skated toward the net. Plekanec
attempted to return the favor, but the puck caromed off both the
Russian's skate and Thomas' pads.

Kovalev neatly slipped the puck past the netminder and inside
the right goalpost for his second goal of the season.

Koivu doubled the advantage just 92 seconds later, gathering the
rebound of a shot by Guillaume Latendresse and one-timing it
past Thomas for his first tally.

Lapierre increased the lead with shorthander just 1:47 later,
when he collected the puck after it deflected off Thomas' left
skate and deposited it past the prone goalie.

"We just said before the game to try to put pressure on them,
and that's what happened," Lapierre said. "We used our speed
and just put the puck at the net, and I got it in the net."

Although his team was outshot, 8-1, to start the second period,
Krejci got the Bruins on the scoreboard 7:15 into the session.

After blue-liner Andrew Ference's blast from the right faceoff
circle was denied by Price, Montreal defenseman Josh Gorges
attempted to clear the puck. Krejci intercepted it in the high
slot and unleashed a shot that glanced off the crossbar and into
the net for his second goal of the campaign.

With his team's 5-on-3 power play about to be reduced to a
one-man advantage, Savard halved the deficit 7:12 in the the
third period by banging home a rebound just as Andrei Kostitsyn
exited the penalty box.

"You can't make mistakes like we did in the first period and
expect to win hockey games," Boston coach Claude Julien said.
"We had to get better from goaltending out, big saves, smarter
plays and everybody has to take responsibility.

"I thought we did that in the second and third periods against a
pretty good hockey club. To battle back from a 3-0 deficit, you
have to give the players credit."